Buried

CHAPTER 16 | danger, danger, will robinson

📎A/N. Sorry for the delay in posting. I am not really overly happy with the chapter, but I know some of you have been waiting for the next installment.

As always comments and feedback (as well as votes) welcome...

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It is a proven fallacy that the crime rate rises around a full moon. Over the years, countless studies have been conducted which prove the theory incorrect and unjustified.

However, that didn't stop those on duty in the Emergency Communications Centre in Worchester, blaming the full moon for the higher than normal call volumes.

Answering more than one hundred and twenty million calls per year, they were trained to handle all types of emergencies. From people calling in to report accidents, crimes, fires, domestic abuse, and cats stuck in trees.

The 911 Dispatcher taking the call was new to the job, and was doing his best to keep up with the chaos of the full moon. He had just ended the previous call, when another was automatically routed to his headset.

"Nine-one-one. What is the address of your emergency?"

"Analienhastakenovermyneighbour! Send someone quick!" The voice belonged to an elderly woman, obviously frantic about something.

"Ma'am you need to calm down. I need you to repeat your problem again."

"An alien has taken over the body of my neighbour! I think it's going to burst out of his chest. You have to do something."

The 911 operator paused before answering. This type of call was not covered in his training. "Has anyone been hurt?"

"Not yet. But as soon as it escapes - we are all doomed. It will infect us all," the woman cried in horror, attempting to make the dispatcher understand the disaster playing out before her.

"Okay, can I ask your name?" The operator began to quickly leaf through his call scripts, trying to locate instructions on how to deal with the current caller.

"Myrtle. Myrtle Brown. Oh God, he's screaming. You need to send someone now."

Despite the operators best efforts, the woman could not be calmed down enough to provide an address. As per procedure, he escalated the call, and handed it over to his supervisor.

"Linda, I've got a woman that won't be calmed down enough to give me her details."

The duty supervisor, after managing to pacify Myrtle, began to get an uneasy feeling as the woman described the scene playing out in her neighbour's backyard.

The more she elaborated, the greater the feeling of dread that welled up from the pit of the night supervisors stomach. Telling the woman to stay on the line, she quickly made another call.

Twenty minutes later, an ambulance pulled up outside of the address Mrs Brown had given. She, being the concerned neighbour, stood outside waiting to direct the Paramedics to the correct house. The entire time, still talking to the night supervisor.

A short while later, they wheeled Myrtle's neighbour, now strapped securely to a gurney, to the paramedics vehicle.

Quickly closing the doors, and thanking the concerned neighbour for her diligence and concern, they rushed to the front of the vehicle. The woman waved absently as the ambulance speed away and she finished her call with the 911 Supervisor.

Myrtle headed back inside to make herself a warm cup of tea, and to make a hat from aluminium foil. She wanted to make sure she wasn't able to be taken by aliens as well.